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Stock futures fall ahead of retailer earnings

An anxious Wall Street proceeded cautiously
Monday after last week's selloff, sending stock futures lower ahead
of earnings from two major retailers.

Investors were also nervously waiting to see whether the
nation's troubled automobile industry would get a bailout. Senate
Democrats, who plan to introduce legislation Monday, want to use
part of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout to help prop up
Detroit's Big Three carmakers: General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co.
and Chrysler LLC. A vote was expected as early as Wednesday.

In the meantime, the market will be assessing third-quarter
results from retailers Target Corp. and Lowe's Cos. After last
week's Commerce Department report showing a 2.8 percent decline in
retail sales for October, investors are not optimistic about the
health of the average consumer.

Last Friday, Wall Street ended a turbulent week with a loss,
hurtling the Dow down nearly 340 points. For the week, the Dow
finished down 5 percent; the S&P 500 index sank 6.2 percent; and
the Nasdaq plunged 7.9 percent.

In economic data, the government at 9:15 a.m. Eastern time will
release its October reading on industrial production. The median
estimate by economists surveyed by Thomson/IFR is an increase of
0.2 percent after September's drop of 2.8 percent.

Leaders from members of the Group of 20 nations met in
Washington Friday and Saturday. They made no concrete plans to try
to resolve the global financial crisis, but they did pledge to keep
working together to provide loans to financial institutions. The
leaders also agreed to reform the International Monetary Fund and
the World Bank to give developing nations a stronger say, and to
refrain from erecting trade barriers for the next 12 months.

The dollar fell against most other major currencies, and gold
prices also declined.

Light, sweet crude fell $1.32 to $55.72 a barrel in premarket
electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.